LOGAN — A 23-year-old North Logan man has been arrested on suspicion of manipulating a 16-year-old girl into having sex with him by allegedly using “devil worship language.” Scott P. Ferree was booked into the Cache County Jail Thursday afternoon.
According to an arrest report, in January, the mother of the alleged victim contacted the Cache County Sheriff’s Office, reporting she was concerned about text messages between her daughter and Ferree. She claimed the suspect was manipulating her daughter into having sex.
The affidavit stated, “(The mother) went on to say that (Ferree) had been using some type of devil worship language to manipulate (her daughter) into the alleged sex acts.”
When interviewed by deputies, the girl said that Ferree had instructed her to listen to “Dev” and said “Dev would text her and tell her what she needed to do to Scott,” the report detailed. “She went on to disclose that she had been instructed by this Dev on numerous occasions that she needed to” perform sex acts.
The girl explained to law enforcement, she was told that if she did not cooperate, that she and her family would be cursed, and they would pay a great price for not doing what was required of her. She stated that out of fear for her safety and the safety of her family, she would follow the instructions that were provided by Dev. She stated that most of these would come through text, either through Instagram and/or standard text messages.
Deputies say the text messages from Dev started shortly after Ferree allegedly raped the girl. The phone number was traced to an internet based number created in 2019 by the suspect, according to the arrest report.
A search of the girl’s phone revealed an extensive text stream between her and Dev that included graphic detail, instructing on where she was to meet Ferree, the sex acts that she was to perform and the threats if she did not comply with the instructions. They also instructed her to send naked photos of herself to the suspect. The texts took place over a period of several months in the fall of 2020.
On March 8, Ferree was interviewed by deputies and denied any sexual contact with the alleged victim. He claimed his phone had been damaged because he dropped it and then put it in water when it started smoking. “The phone had nine different strike marks front and back and the sim card was melted,” according to the affidavit.
Thursday, after interviewing Ferree again and serving a search warrant on his home, he was taken into custody. He was booked on two counts of rape, two counts of forcible sodomy, four counts of enticing a minor, and sexual exploitation of a minor.